This invention relates generally to food processing devices and, more particularly, to a combined cutting and straining apparatus.
Food preparation often involves the cutting or chopping of vegetables and meat and then rinsing or straining the cut food items before mixing the rinsed food items or otherwise continuing to prepare a meal. Items cut using a cutting board are often deposited into a separate straining basket and the process is repeated until the straining basket is full or the food items are completely chopped. In other words, the cutting board may not be large enough to contain all of the food items at one time and may result in spillage onto a counter or floor.
Various devices have been proposed for combining the features of a cutting board with a strainer basket. Although presumably effective for their intended purposes, the existing device or proposals do not have a structure to maximize the stability or efficiency of the combination.
Therefore it would be desirable to have a cutting board coupled to a strainer basket and configured such that cut food items may be scraped or pushed directly into the strainer basket until the strainer basket is full and ready for rinsing. Further, it would be desirable to have a combined cutting board and strainer basket in which the cutting board is wider than the strainer basket and includes a plurality of cutting board legs that may be selectively deployed for enhanced support and stability during straining.